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English Pub Culinary Tour

Eat your way through the top pubs in London and beyond for authentic Scotch eggs, fish-and-chips, and pints.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 by EveryTrail members

Difficulty: Easy

Duration: Multiple days

Overview :
Britons seem to have come to terms with the existence of something called British food. The better news is that some of the most... more » satisfying stuff is coming not out of high temples of gastronomy, but from that indigenous treasure, the English pub. What we want from a pub is honest British food, respectful of tradition and place but not stuck in time, served in a relaxed atmosphere of beer, cheery barmaids, a fireplace. less «

The Harwood Arms is a classic London gastropub that specializes in serving fresh, seasonal, and authentic British fare. Inside, a random collection of black-and-white photographs hangs from the gray-toned walls, and distressed wooden tables fill the cozy space. Ingredients are carefully selected from sustainable sources, and most of the game on... More the menu is hunted by the pub’s own Mike Robinson and processed at Vicars Game in Berkshire. The menu features items such as Berkshire wood pigeon, roast cod, and rack of English lamb. Bar snacks are also available, as is a selection of more than 30 wines.

The Hinds Head is what you see when you close your eyes and picture the words: Traditional. Village. Pub. A low-slung Tudor building, it resembles so perfectly the Platonic ideal of a pub that at first you worry it might be putting you on. Here, the oxtail-and-kidney pie is made with meat that’s been cooked sous-vide for 16 hours. It’s hard to... More describe exactly how rich, how immensely meaty, how gooey and impressive this little pie is. Order a bowl of simple chips at the Hinds Head bar: a dozen or so amber-colored, triple-cooked, thick-but-not-too-thick wedges, glassy outside, mashy inside, each one a kind of lesson in what a chip should be.

Here the menu is predicated on local ingredients; the wood floors and stone walls have a warm, familiar feeling; and the fish pie, Grasmere farm sausages, and sticky toffee pudding are deligtful.

Address:
Main St.
Clipsham, England
United Kingdom

Phone:
44-17-8041-0355

5. Sportsman

There’s a story behind the cured ham Stephen Harris serves at his seaside pub on the pebbly Kent coast. “We’re not the archetypal village pub,” Harris says. “You can imagine bikers on bank holiday getting into a fight here. We’re kind of weird, but it means my interpretation can be a bit more free." Harris’s idea was to make dishes that... More tasted every bit as good as those served at the Michelin-starred restaurants he admired in London, but stripped of the needless frump and finery. “You have to feel an area when you cook,” Harris says. “Just up the road there are pigs and lambs, and the estuary has every kind of shellfish. It’s what the French call cuisine de terroir.” As if to neutralize the French foodie-talk, pork scratchings are set on the table. Fried pork skin: the most basic pub snack. But these are elevated scratchings. Crisp, salty, sticky—an elegant précis of porkness. The pigs come from Monkshill Farm, barely a mile away. Not long after taking over the Sportsman, Harris started collecting water from the salt marsh and making his own fleur de sel. Following the logic of the ingredients, he cured legs of pork in his salt and hung them in his beer cellar. One day an archaeologist friend stopped by and looked in on his hams. “He said, ‘You do realize that the monks did this here nearly a thousand years ago?’” Harris says. “Turns out Monkshill was run by monks. All of the land we use today was owned by the kitchens of Canterbury Cathedral.”

Address:
Faversham Rd.
Kent, England
United Kingdom

Phone:
44-12-2727-3370Less

6. St. John Bar & Restaurant

Housed in a whitewashed old smokehouse, St. John couldn’t be called a gastropub. But owner Fergus Henderson is a canonized figure on the revitalized British restaurant scene. The spirit of his “nose to tail” approach—respectful of place and seasons, rigorously unfussy, unapologetically British—hovers over many of the best pub kitchens.

Address:... More
26 St. John St., Smithfield
London, England
United Kingdom

Phone:
44-20-7251-0848Less

7. Star Inn

To one side is a restaurant with a flashy, modern dining room and a Michelin star, but what you’re looking for is next door, nearly hidden beneath the thatch: a tiny pub room that feels carved out of the trunk of a very old tree. Here is everything you’d want in a picture-book country pub: low beamed ceilings; indulgent, smiling barmaids; a fire; ... Moresketches of cricket players and judges on the wall; and, served all day, Yorkshire pudding with roast beef cut thick as a Penguin paperback.

The Place: A small, charming pub where chef Tom Kerridge has earned a Michelin star. Visitors can stay in one of four cottages. The Classics: Kerridge’s menu relies on seasonal ingredients and changes often, but there is one constant: roast beef and pork on Sundays.

Address:
126 West St.
Marlow, England
United Kingdom

Phone:
44-16-2848-2277

9. Three Fishes

Nigel Haworth and Craig Bancroft run this gigantic, bustling pub. Packed with families, the place operates as a kind of living museum of the culinary bounty of the region. The menu is oversize, too, and features a map of local purveyors carrying the legend regional food heroes.

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